WHEN THAKUR LEFT KAMARPUKUR FOR KOLKATA
Sri Ramakrishna came to Kolkata from Kamarpukur with his elder brother, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay, being driven by poverty. Ramkumar hoped to improve his family's fortunes slightly by this migration. He intended to open a Sanskrit Tol (school) in Kolkata and earn, along with his younger brother, Gadadhar (Ramakrishna), some more amount by conducting priestly services in the households of the rich and the able. Thus, Sri Ramakrishna's shift of location from his village home to his eventual residence at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple complex was actuated by financial considerations consequent on abiding familial poverty. That a deeper drama was in the process unfolding was not known to either brother then, perhaps.
This migration of the Chattopadhyay brothers was one of the earliest instances of urbanisation in Bengal and is a pointer to the plight of the rural people since then till today. It was in this context of massive rural poverty that Swamiji had set up the Ramakrishna Mission as 'a lever for the good of humanity' which no power on earth could push back and which would bring food to the poor, relief to the distressed and the light of education to the illiterate masses reeling under ignorance and consequent poverty.
Now, here we are, 132 years after the demise of Sri Ramakrishna, witnessing the dire necessities of the Ramakrishna Math, Haripad, Kerala, India. Shall we not respond adequately to be of help to the monks serving there and to bring to fruition fast the projects they have undertaken? I leave you to ponder this question and to act thereon as you deem right.
http://
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Ramakrishna Math, Haripad Ashrama
Sri Ramakrishna came to Kolkata from Kamarpukur with his elder brother, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay, being driven by poverty. Ramkumar hoped to improve his family's fortunes slightly by this migration. He intended to open a Sanskrit Tol (school) in Kolkata and earn, along with his younger brother, Gadadhar (Ramakrishna), some more amount by conducting priestly services in the households of the rich and the able. Thus, Sri Ramakrishna's shift of location from his village home to his eventual residence at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple complex was actuated by financial considerations consequent on abiding familial poverty. That a deeper drama was in the process unfolding was not known to either brother then, perhaps.
This migration of the Chattopadhyay brothers was one of the earliest instances of urbanisation in Bengal and is a pointer to the plight of the rural people since then till today. It was in this context of massive rural poverty that Swamiji had set up the Ramakrishna Mission as 'a lever for the good of humanity' which no power on earth could push back and which would bring food to the poor, relief to the distressed and the light of education to the illiterate masses reeling under ignorance and consequent poverty.
Now, here we are, 132 years after the demise of Sri Ramakrishna, witnessing the dire necessities of the Ramakrishna Math, Haripad, Kerala, India. Shall we not respond adequately to be of help to the monks serving there and to bring to fruition fast the projects they have undertaken? I leave you to ponder this question and to act thereon as you deem right.
http://
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Ramakrishna Math, Haripad Ashrama
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